AUDIO:

The following is a rough machine transcript. Click the words to skip to that point in the audio.

HAMANN:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River, and today we're going to be talking about public access to our rivers, wild spaces, and trails. With me, I have Steve Rosenberg. He is a retired attorney and longtime hunter and fisherman. He's lived in the area since 1949. Welcome, Steve. And I also have Karen Underwood. She is the advocacy chair for the Humboldt Trails Council and a resident of Hydesville. Welcome, Karen.

UNDERWOOD:

Thank you, Alicia.

HAMANN:

So I want to start off with just talking about what a wonderful place Humboldt County is to live, you know, in part because of our spectacular rivers and wild spaces, but unfortunately there's been a trend over the last several decades of the public losing access to many of these wonderful assets that we have. Navigable rivers up to the high water mark are part of the public domain, so that means that it is well within the public's access to use these rivers for fishing, recreation, navigation, and a variety of other permitted uses. But getting to those rivers is becoming more and more challenging because so much of the land in the county is privately owned. Even in places where legal public access exists, we're learning that it's not often properly noticed. It's lacking signs or basic infrastructure to inform the public that that access exists, and the if-you-know-you-know system is really not true public access. So Steve, I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about, you know, what it was like 30 or 40 years ago, what kinds of access you enjoyed, and how that's changed to today.

ROSENBERG:

So, 40 years ago, access was still unlimited, and that included beaches, and gradually that has been eroded away, and there's been several major causes. It all started with denial of vehicular access to Clam Beach, because the local head of the Sierra Club was against off-road vehicles. That traditional clamming access, vehicular access, had occurred for 100 years, and scientific studies showed that there was no damage to the clam beds or snowy plovers or anything like that. Then those things came along, and then the federal government stepped in, and they invented, in my opinion, they invented reasons to close that access off. When the chief complaint was a few bad apples, usually young men, that would hot rod up and down the sand, the wet sand. Our pleas were adequate enforcement would solve that problem, but they eventually just fell on deaf ears, despite earnest efforts by former supervisor Jimmy Smith.

And so, we lose that vehicular access, and it's very difficult, especially for seniors, to walk out through the sand dunes to Clam, because you never know where they're going to be, and it's a long beach. And usually that activity only lasted for an hour or two in the morning, because it's dependent upon those spring and early summer minus daybreak tides. And then the ocean has to be calm, too. So it's something that I believe could have been controlled through adequate enforcement. The same thing obtained with the elimination of vehicular access at the mouth of Mad River and at Samoa and Orick and places like that, where we used to go to surf fish, and now that's no longer allowed, except for a very few commercial fishermen, but they're not enough to put a den in anything.

So after that, we started having problems with transients. There's always been a problem with garbage dumping in river access areas, but then we started having trouble with transients. They took over the south spit of Humboldt Bay. And despite my efforts, it took me about eight or nine years to finally get to show the county legally that could remove those people based upon a health hazard. After that, the government took over, and now the access is, we still have it, but it's restricted there and controlled by multiple organizations, which is just overkill. The Fish and Game, the Sheriff's Department, BLM, and the National Wildlife Service all have a part in controlling three miles of beach. It's basically, it's absurd.

So then the river situation, which is the main subject, I hated to digress, but it's all part of the history of the gradual denial of access, and the access to beaches is also recognized by the Supreme Court, too. As a matter of fact, the initial case that started all this right of public access was a case in Santa Cruz, where people had used this trail across private property to a beach for a long time, and that was the Guion case, and the government held that the public had established a right by use to cross this area to access beaches. So then going to the rivers, the garbage dumping continued, and then the transient started moving in. And rather than the county doing something about enforcing that, the county started off at the mouth of the Van Dusen River by suing the landowner there to get rid of the garbage, which that's something the county should have done. So then the landowner blocked the access. Then all the other landowners start doing that, too. And so now we're down, basically we're down to just, on the Eel River from Firm Bridge up, we're down to just one drive-in access, and it's a terrible jeep road both ways at Grizzly Buff. Whereas before, we had multiple accesses to the river, and people need the vehicular access because a lot of those pools, you can't walk to them because they're boat pools and you have to have a way to get your boat down there.

Or if you drift one part of the river to another, you have to have a put-in spot and a take-out spot. But the county's solution to all this is just to put a gate on it and block it off to solve the transient problem and the garbage dumping problem, when actually reasonable enforcement, in my opinion, could be more beneficial. I know I'm talking too long, but there's one other thing. Then they started using the snowy plover as an excuse to deny us access in the summer through the county access. But the thing is, the snowy plovers have always just been a straggler nester here, and basically there haven't been any breeding there for years. And even when they found a couple nests, it was like one or two over a vast area. But we drove on established trails because the river bar and the gravel is soft, so once you drive one way to the pool, people don't deviate from that, otherwise it's more burdensome to push your way through the gravel, even with four-wheel drive.

So to me, that was just another excuse to block access. I have attempted to restore all those traditional accesses through multiple supervisors, starting with Jimmy Smith, next Roger Rodoni, next Rex Bohn, and also on the bay, Mike Wilson, because the north part of the bay is his bailiwick. To no event, they just say, too bad, you can walk. Well, especially for seniors, that's difficult. When you drive down that river alongside the freeway, you think, oh, that's not very far to walk. Well, the eye deceives them. When you get out on that river bar, it's huge, and the gravel's soft, and you have cumbersome gear, and it's unreasonable to expect people to walk. It used to be a very popular place with fishermen from all over the place fishing there, and now there's almost nobody. So basically, it's bad economically, too.

HAMANN:

So it sounds like this pattern, this institutional practice of preferring to take the easy way out, which is to just cut off access for everyone when there are problematic uses. And, you know, I have to be frank. I think we might, we might disagree a little bit about protections for species like snowy plovers. I do think that that's really important, but I think that there's something to be said for the fact that it's a few bad apples and rather than provide adequate enforcement, the county is just taking the easy way out and saying, if everybody can't behave, then nobody gets it.

ROSENBERG:

I mean, there could be, what Jimmy Smith arranged at Worswick, for example, which is just above Fernbridge, is a key access for us. So that separated out the bad apples. But they wouldn't let us go out there until the snowy plover season was over. And we lived with that. But in the last couple of years, the transients have picked the locks and got in there, so the county blocked it off completely. There hasn't been a snowy plover found nesting there for over five years. But if they have the kinetic sculpture event, it's okay for them to drive down there. You know, so to me, it's not fairly administered. And I will point out that at Worswick, when Emil Hansen sold that property to the county, he would not sell it to the county without a resolution that public access to the river would always be allowed.

HAMANN:

So, Karen, I was hoping you could help tell everyone the background of what has happened at this latest point of public access, that there's a risk of the county maybe having the same kind of behavior as they have in the past. What is this access point like, and when did this first potential loss of this access come into the public's awareness?

UNDERWOOD:

Very good. The access point that Alicia is talking about is a very specific one out here in Hydesville. It's Fisher Road off of Highway 36 and I first became familiar with Fisher Road when we moved to Hydesville in 2004. My husband's a fisherman and when he first took me down to Fisher Road and down to the Van Dusen River, I was enthralled. It's a beautiful spot. The public has been accessing the river there for over 100 years via Fisher Road and so just a beloved spot that frequently many times a year I would walk down to the river.

I joined the Humboldt Trails Council about five years ago and I'm their advocacy advocate and in November of 2022 we found out after the fact that the owners of the property there, their name is Patton, had gone to the Board of Supervisors to have Fisher Road from their property line down to the river which is a little bit around a mile in length vacated by the county so that it would virtually become a private road and that the public would no longer be able to access that road without permission from those property owners. So that was taken notice of and fortunately at that board meeting they had forgotten to contact the Great Redwood Trail who owned the right-of-way through their property. It crosses their whole property there and bisects Fisher Road and so that decision was postponed to the December 20th board meeting which was cancelled because of the earthquake. This is in December of 2022.

HAMANN:

So we all got kind of lucky because the makeup of the board actually changed after that meeting.

UNDERWOOD:

Yes and that was probably the one good thing from that earthquake was that that board meeting did not occur. There was a change in the makeup of the board meeting and the patents withdrew their request for a vacation after that and pretty much battened down the road. There were more trespass signs put up and at the bottom of the road, K-bars were moved around so that literally you could not even go down there and turn around. That happened in early January of 2023. We, we being Humboldt Trails Council and at that time the No Coal and Humboldt Coalition had transitioned to be the Great Rubber Trail Friends Group and so we were meeting monthly and at that time the groups that were still involved with this contacted board of supervisor members and were concerned that that this access to the river was being denied to the public.

HAMANN:

You are listening to the Econews Report. Talking about public access to our rivers, wild spaces, and trails. I want to share that Friends of the Eel River is partnering with the Eel River Cleanup Project to host a Love Your River cleanup event in Garberville on Saturday, February 17th. So let's back up a little bit. Can Karen, can you describe a little more what kind of access existed before 2018 and what happened?

UNDERWOOD:

Yes. Around the winter of 2018, the river changed course. And before that time, the public had lots of access down to the river, especially in the summertime, just people would go down there and picnic and swim. In the fall and spring, fishermen would access the river there. One of the best holes on the Van Dusen River is right at the mouth of Yager Creek, which is just to the east of this road. So the public has a long history of going down to the river and enjoying that resource. In the winter of 2018, the river changed course. And Alicia, maybe you can help me with this. Part of what happened to the river was because the riprap had been removed.

HAMANN:

That's right. There was some unpermitted bank armoring that had been in place.

ROSENBERG:

end of the whole history of it.

HAMANN:

There was some unpermitted bank armoring that had been in place, and it, you know, for better or worse, it needed to come out, it had exposed rebar, and it was concrete, and that's just bad for the fish, and it was shortly after that happened that the river, you know, used its powerful force of nature. Steve, did you want to add something to that?

ROSENBERG:

Before that, right at the boundary between the riparian section of the river and Kelly Patton's property, the road continued out onto the river bar, and the river ran much further to the south, as much as a quarter mile. And Yogurt Creek came out a little further to the east then, but it was always so shallow that it didn't prevent an impediment to us going out to the mouth of Yogurt Creek where it joined the river and launching our boats or just driving out to go fishing. And then the river changed its course back over to the north, and because of that, the landowner that adjoins Kelly Patton, Jack Noble, he wanted to make sure the public still had access, so he installed riprap to keep the river from eating away in there, and he created a parking lot. And we could still go in there and park, and there was adequate room for quite a few cars to park, and then we could get to the river that way or launch our boats right there.

But then the Fish and Game came along, according to Kelly, this is what Kelly Patton told me, and Jack Noble himself. The Fish and Game came along, and they didn't like that riprap, so they made him remove the riprap, and Jack Noble did that, and Jack said, the river's just going to eat in here. And well, sure enough, Jack was right, and now it's eaten almost to the boundary between Kelly Patton and Fisher Road, and not only has Kelly obstructed that access with a fence, he's also constructed gates on the main road that's still a county road, and erected no trespassing signs. It's clearly against the law. There's clearly still a public right of access. He has no right to maintain that fence, and it's amazing that the county is slow in enforcement, because in 1980, they sued an adjoining landowner for the same thing and won, so they've changed from proactive to non-active.

HAMANN:

Actually, that gate is now in a locked open position, they've resolved that issue.

UNDERWOOD:

Right. Yeah.

ROSENBERG:

But he needs to move the fence, lock down the fence.

HAMANN:

They're working on that, yeah. So I wanna get into some of the legal precedent here. Despite the county's history of action not protecting public access, they surprisingly actually back in 1992, litigated and won to protect public access at Oddfellows Road, which is just up the river from Fisher Road, provides access to the Van Duzen River in a case called Best versus Humboldt. Essentially the court ruled that the road easement may be used by the public for the purpose of gaining access to the Van Duzen River between its ordinary high water marks for swimming, fishing, navigational, recreational purposes. And then this case was reviewed by the California Court of Appeals who affirmed the decision and further ruled that the right of way to a river extends to the river throughout any changes in the river's course. And this is exactly what's happened at Fisher Road.

Now, I do have to say I was invited out to the Patton's property pretty recently to kind of see the situation for myself and open a line of dialogue with the property owners, which I really appreciated. That was very thoughtful of them. And it was really interesting to see how the physical access to the river is extremely difficult right now. There is definitely some work that needs to be done to ensure that people can actually physically access the river. Now, that doesn't change the fact that legal access remains. And particularly given that ruling from the Court of Appeals that the right of way to a river remains despite how a river might move. And as Steve has mentioned today, and as many of you listeners know, healthy rivers move and migrate and that's what they do.

So the Humboldt County supervisors at this point have moved this item into closed session. So it's unclear exactly what kind of progress they're making on protecting the public's right to access the river, as well as the future Great Redwood Trail, which as Karen mentioned, runs right through the property as well. It's clear that they're gonna need involvement from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. That's really essential in arriving at a solution that can provide safe public access to the river. I have heard from some fishermen that they're willing to rappel down the bank and get to the river any way they can. But that's not really appropriate access for all. And as I said before, the if you know, you know kind of way of accessing rivers, if you can get to it by clamoring down a bank, that's not true public access.

Karen, do you wanna talk a little bit more about the Great Redwood Trail Friends Coalition and how we're planning to follow up on this?

UNDERWOOD:

Right. As I mentioned earlier, the Great River Trail bisects Fisher Road, and we envision that people in the near future will be using that trail. And this is the only spot where these folks can get down and actually see the Van Dusen River. The old rail line is much farther inland along that bench. So this is where the Great River Trail and Humboldt Trails Council has interest in what's going on there.

HAMANN:

How is our coalition planning on persistently following up on this?

UNDERWOOD:

Yeah, as mentioned earlier, the Great Redwood Trail Friends Group, the coalition, is following up on this. At least recently, we've sent in a couple of sign-on letters from all of the members of our group to the Board of Supervisors asking them to make a decision on this. As Steve pointed out, we're pretty sure this is public access. And the public does not know that. If you're just someone new going down that road, there are signs at the front of the road that says there's no public access, no place to turn around. It's a beautiful walk down to the river along that road, just the walk itself. And it's peppered with no trespassing signs, very unfriendly. And just as a hiker in Humboldt County in general, I've run into that many times up on our county roads in Showers Pass area, where these are county roads, but the landowners post them with so many trespassing signs, you really question whether or not you can be there.

So I think this, again, is if we can work with the people who own the ranch. And I think the coalition is totally willing to do that and help them with some of the problems that they've identified. Once that Great Redwood Trail exists on the Carlotta, this is the Carlotta spur of the Great Redwood Trail. The Humboldt Trails Council will work to put a volunteer trail steward group on that trail for cleaning and brushing that trail, and that will help with maintenance. I agree with Steve, two of the biggest problems out on these county roads are the garbage dumping and the enforcement.

HAMANN:

Or the lack of enforcement, really.

UNDERWOOD:

The lack of enforcement, yes. Those are two big issues. And of course, the homelessness issue is related to the lack of enforcement. But those are two issues that exist in lots of places in our county, not even with just our access. It's along our trails too. So those are issues we need to work together. And I think the Great River Trail Friends group is part of that solution.

HAMANN:

That's right. Thanks, Karen. Steve, did you want to leave us with any anecdotes about all you've learned in fishing in this region?

ROSENBERG:

Well, just know ust in terms of approach, if you go over the border to Oregon, everywhere in Oregon there's public access over private property, and there's trails, there's stairs to climb over fences, there are drift boat launches on the sides of the rivers, and that's all done in cooperation with the government and the private landowners with rules that are enforced. And it's just like night and day, California and Oregon. Oregon is so much better managed. Now I understand that the supervisors here in Humboldt County are in a continuing budget crisis, but to me access to our beaches and rivers, it's a total win-win situation if they cooperate with landowners, provide funds for maintenance, for access, and because then more people will use those areas and they'll contribute to the economy here.

A lot of my friends, they just go hunting and fishing in Oregon now. It's just amazing. There's just boat launches and access everywhere up there, and you don't see transients, you don't see garbage because they don't allow it. They enforce it, and they take care of the public rights of access at the same time. So there needs to be a change of direction instead of dumping rocks and allowing abandonment of roads and just ignoring the problem. There needs to be a change of direction in the proactive sense by the supervisors and the county employees underneath them.

HAMANN:

Yeah, sounds like we could definitely learn from some lessons from our neighbors. Before I sign off, I want to share that Friends of the Eel River is partnering with the Eel River Cleanup Project to host a Love Your River cleanup event in Garberville on Saturday, February 17th. So please stay tuned to our social media pages, your local event calendars, or eelriver.org for more details about how to join us. And stay tuned to see what happens with protecting public access at Fisher Road and other places around Humboldt County. This has been another edition of the EcoNews Report. Join us at the same time and place next week for more environmental news from the North Coast.